l friend of
Agrippa's, reports that he knew very well all about the dog; that it was
not a superhuman dog at all, but (if the term be admissible) a mere
human dog--an animal which he, Wierus, had often led about by a string,
and only a domestic pet of Agrippa.

Another eminent magician of those days was Doctor Faustus, about whom
Goethe wrote "Faust," Bailey wrote "Festus," and whose story, mingled of
human love and of the devilish tricks of Mephistopheles, is known so
very widely. The truth about Faust seems to be, that he was simply a
successful juggler of the sixteenth century. Yet the wonderful stories
about him were very implicitly and extensively believed. It was the time
of the Protestant Reformation, and even Melanchthon and Luther seem to
have entirely believed that Faustus could make the forms of the dead
appear, could carry people invisibly through the air, and play all the
legendary tricks of the enchanters. So strong a hold does humbug often
obtain even upon the noblest and clearest and wisest minds!

Faustus, according to the traditions, had a pretty keen eye for a joke.
He once sold a splendid horse to a horse-jockey at a fair. The fellow
shortly rode his fine horse to water. When he got into the water, lo and
behold, the horse vanished, and the humbugged jockey found himself
sitting up to his neck in the river on a straw saddle. There is
something quite satisfactory in the idea of playing such a trick on one
of that sharp generation, and Faust felt so comfortable over it that he
entered his hotel and went quietly to sleep--or pretended to. Shortly in
came the angry jockey; he shouted and bawled, but could not awaken the
doctor, and in his anger he seized his foot and gave it a good pull.
Foot and leg came off in his hand. Faustus screamed out as if in
horrible agony, and the terrified jockey ran away as fast as he could,
and never troubled his very loose-jointed customer for the money.

A magician named Ziito, resident at the court of Wenceslaus of Bohemia
(A. D. 1368 to 1419,) appears to great advantage in the annals of these
humbugs. He was a homely, crooked creature, with an immense mouth. He
had a collision once in public on a question of skill with a brother
conjuror, and becoming a little excited, opened his big mouth and
swallowed the other magician, all to his shoes, which as he observed
were dirty. Then he stepped into a closet, got his rival out of him
somehow, and calmly led him back to the